Readers' comments

Alex.K.NY: It wasn't always so bad, and there are still serious news sources, though broadcast news had proceeded well on its way to garbage by the '70s, and by the mid-'80s was rotted clear through. Do I seriously think that we're going to hear the whole truth about the nuts and bolts of government ? Not a chance. Mustn't upset the sources. And budget details aren't the least bit sexy. Certainly, a business is accountable to its customers to the extent it wants to keep them, but the audience does prefer to be entertained; thinking just makes your head hurt.

bampbs you're kidding right? This is supposed to be a democracy - it is up to the citizens to make sure the spending is in their interests. If citizens are indifferent to peruse the available information (and press for more still) and defend their interest, do you really expect the privately held media to do it for them?Why would they? Media conglomerates are profit seeking businesses with partners and shareholders - they provide entertainment streams to you to sell commercials and circulation, and it may sometimes look like news and journalism, and sometimes it is journalism, but it by no means has to be. Because they are not accountable to us.Our government is accountable to us, and as citizens of democracy we are also ultimately accountable for actions of our elected government, here and abroad.Alex K

Sounds to me like citizens doing the newsmedia's job; but for a long time now the great, First Amendment-protected guardians of the Republic have preferred to herd in hundreds and thousands to watch each other watching nonsense.

In my city (which is St.petersburg, Russia) our city spending bill is published on the offficial website since 2001. However not detailed to the toilet seat level, it still is a multimegabyte Word document, which says a lot about the government spending.
It was a little bit embarassing to know, that even in the UK and the US it is still not a common and obligatory practice.

The only hold-up is that, no doubt the budgets and contracts from the Defense, Security, and State Departments will still have to have black-boxes for special operations; otherwise we will see the return of $100 screwdrivers and $250 toilet seats (which were fake accounting for special operations’ equipment and services at the time when the old accounting method was used).

"That may seem like citizens doing the government’s job. But at least someone is doing it."Please tell me this is a joke. If you think citizens have no personal responsibility in holding their government to account, I can name plenty of countries you can move to, but after living in the US or UK, I don't think you would like it there.

I don't know whether my fellow Americans will even think enough of this article to read the comments, but I hope they will. I live in the UK, and not too long ago, someone demanded that members of Parliament release details on how they spent their expense budgets. They fought it, and fought hard. When the information was eventually released, it was pretty clear /why/ the MPs hadn't wanted the taxpayers to see where their money was going.

We Americans have had a lot to be ashamed of in the past several years. But this -- this we can be proud of. It's truly government by the people!